


Needs a Good Spanking

by princessgrouch



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-20
Updated: 2017-04-20
Packaged: 2018-10-08 09:41:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,147
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10383843
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/princessgrouch/pseuds/princessgrouch





	1. Chapter 1

He was annoyed.  
Everyone else had it easy. Arthur had to be the perfect son. The perfect prince. The perfect knight. The perfect future king.  
His father wouldn’t have it any other way.  
No matter how hard he trained, his father never seemed quite pleased enough at his performance in the tournaments. “You miss-stepped during that last round. That’s the mistake of a novice.” Or “You did well enough; I know you’re still young.”  
And in council meetings! The glare that said, “Don’t slouch.” The sniff that warned him, “Pay more attention.” Times when he’d offered an opinion that went largely ignored. “You’ll realize things are more complicated than they seem,” his father would say later, “when you’re older.” And his father would go off with this council member, or that noble, to discuss “grown-up” things.  
There was no recovering from having been the cause of his mother’s death. But the times that hurt the most was when his father waved him away, “Go about your duties.” Or “As king, I have responsibilities,” (implying Arthur did not), and therefore could not take a ride with his son, could not stroll the battlements, could not be father-and-son. Never a heart-to-heart. It was as if, instead of one parent, he had none at all.  
Attention-seeking, that’s all it was: if he had to misbehave to get some time with his father, so be it. Only one snag. The loyal, noble, upstanding knights wouldn’t snitch on him. He knew it, he’d tried. Tavern, drinking waaaay too much. The knights saw him safely back to his chambers, and covered for him the next day. He tried again, starting a brawl to top it off. Sir Leon reported training to have been particularly vigorous that day.  
He attempted visiting the back rooms, in the company of a less than honourable woman twice his age. Drunk again, lest he lose his nerve. To no avail; he was too drunk to perform, threw up all over the bed, and passed out. The suddenly kindly wench fetched a couple of knights to take the “poor dear” home.  
The knights actually laughed at him when he confronted them. “You’re just testing the waters,” “Have your fun while you’re young,” “You are actually quite the ‘poor dear’.” Arthur snarled at them, and swore he’d do something, anything, to make them stop the condescension.  
Stole food from the kitchen. Cook chuckled and shook her head at him. Set the horses loose. They came back. Knocked over a stall at the market. Out of guilt spent four hours helping repair the damage and babysitting three dirty urchins who had no mummy at home, so that their daddy could clean his textiles to sell. Sent countless servants to the stocks for minor (or imagined) infractions. Where the guards only allowed children to throw only soft (if somewhat messy) tomatoes, carrot peelings, and bread rolls at the victim, and released them in about 20 minutes. Arthur would have complained, but to whom?  
It was a conspiracy.  
He tried throwing a knife at his hapless manservant, making him run back and forth frantically, holding a target. Arthur laughed, wishing his hand would slip and knowing that it wouldn’t, that he couldn’t really hurt someone, even as the knights with him laughed AT HIM for trying to be “bad”.  
So when someone tried to stop him, of course he was mad.  
Arthur used every sexual innuendo he could think of. His knights laughed harder. That SOMEONE, that MER-lin, didn’t back down. He actually was being FRIENDLY, and CHIPPER, and CAREFREE (which Arthur REALLY hated). He threw him in the dungeon. Let him laugh now!  
The knights told Gauis, who went and let him out again. Arthur made it his mission to punish Merlin. Because the knights liked him. Gaius liked him, and started training him in medicine. The other servants, Gwen, the stable hands, the kitchen staff, all liked him, helping him, showing him how to do his duties. Morgana liked him.  
Even his father....gulp....his FATHER praised the boy. He wouldn’t praise his own son, never mind so publicly, but he praised and rewarded this lanky dark haired boy from nowhere. And all Arthur could think to do was to berate and overwork and throw things at his new manservant. And drag him all over tarnation without a weapon, without protective gear.  
Bloody hell, for some reason Merlin just kept being nice. Oh, he was feisty enough to hold his own. He was tough enough to bounce back. He was a lousy manservant, and if Arthur thought that once this fact became known to the king he would be fired, he would have been wrong. Uther consulted Gaius about treating the boy’s “mental affliction”, and praised Merlin even more for his steadfast loyalty and devotion.  
Arthur’s eyes were in a permanent roll.  
To top it all off, the idiot even went about carelessly throwing his magic around where any fool could have seen and told the king. But apparently this is where the knights, servants, villagers et al, and Arthur shared a common goal. Because no way in hell would Arthur turn Merlin in to be burned at the stake, and everyone else was equally protective of him. And the clueless idiot didn’t even know.  
“Don’t be a prat,” said Merlin. Arthur spent a considerable amount of time staring at his dinner plate, or at his bed canopy, wishing to hear praise from his servant. Wanting to live up to his expectations. Because when Merlin told him, “Well done!” after a tournament, Arthur grinned ear to ear.  
When Merlin nudged him during boring meetings and gave a silent smirk, or raised his brow, Arthur had to bite his lip to keep from laughing at the tediousness of it all, and he didn’t feel quite so alone anymore.  
When they went to Ealdor, Merlin shared his mother with Arthur, and he adored her. She kissed him on the head and told him he was a good boy. She gave him BISCUITS when they left, and told him to come back soon.  
And Merlin smiled, and just looked and looked at him.  
And followed him everywhere. Even when strictly told Arthur had to do something ALONE. Especially then. Because, he said, that was his place, right by his side, helping him. And told him he was going to be the greatest king ever. They rode, they strolled, they wrestled, they swam, they quested.  
They talked by many-a-campfire, after all the knights were sound asleep. Or better still, when it was just the two of them, out in some woods far from Camelot’s towers. Arthur told Merlin all his dreams and fears. Sometimes they just looked at each other, communicating soul-to-soul.


	2. Chapter 2

Arthur was annoyed.  
He wanted Merlin to kiss him. He should just KNOW this, shouldn’t he? Why did Arthur have to do everything?!


End file.
